In February, more than 3,000 trail riders pulled into Memorial Park, their traditional overnight camping spot before the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. In the spirit of the Old West, they had traveled from as far as South Texas and Louisiana to bunk down for the night in the city park, then saddle up the next morning for the rodeo parade.

But as the big group gathered, rodeo board chairman Steve Stevens noticed something was missing. The trees. The 1,466-acre park had lost half of its once-dense canopy to the 2011 drought.

"For more than 50 years, thousands of trail riders have gathered in the park, so I thought this was a nice way to pay back," Stevens said. "We've got to get it going again. The city and county are great to us. … This was the easiest thing we've approved this year."

The donation is for reforestation, which will include planting thousands of trees in the park, said the conservancy's Claire Caudill. However, before any major planting takes place, the conservancy and Houston Parks and Recreation must remove about 20,000 dead trees and create conditions that will ensure greater seedling success.

"We are pleased that dead tree removal, long delayed by heavy rains from January through July, will be completed by the end of the year," Caudill said. "In addition, we have started treating invasive plants in areas where tree removal was done early so that we can plant about 15,000 seedlings this winter."

A long process

The remainder of the invasive treatment and removal will take place during the next growing season, and the bulk of the tree planting will occur during the next planting season, November 2013 to March 2014.

"The reforestation process is a very long and expensive one that requires extensive up front preparation costs before we get to the joy of actually planting trees," Caudill said. "We are grateful that HLSR is making it possible for the conservancy to cover the cost of the entire process. We would not be able to move forward without their very generous donation."